HERAT, Afghanistan - Suspected Taliban gunmen shot dead a
district chief in an ambush in western Afghanistan, officials said, as another
official escaped a similar attack in the east of the country.
Afghan policemen in Kabul. Suspected
Taliban gunmen shot dead a district chief in an ambush in western
Afghanistan.[AFP]
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Abdul Zahir, chief of Gulran district in western Herat province, was gunned
down in his car while travelling to Herat city, the provincial capital on
Wednesday, the interior ministry said on Thursday.
One of his bodyguards was wounded, ministry spokesmen Dad Mohammed Rasa said,
adding that it was not clear whether the attackers were in vehicles or lying in
wait at the roadside.
"The enemies of Afghanistan carried out this attack," Rasa told AFP, using
the Afghan government's usual description for the ousted Taliban movement and
its Islamist allies.
Also on Wednesday, armed men tried to kill Mohammad Mubeen, the chief of
restive Barmal district in eastern Paktika province bordering Pakistan, but the
official escaped unharmed.
"Our Barmal district chief was attacked by the enemy but he was not hit,"
provincial governor Mohammad Akram Khpolwak said.
The attackers fled after Mubeen's bodyguards returned fire for several
minutes, he said.
The governor also blamed the attack on the Taliban, who were toppled by a
US-led invasion in 2001.
The Taliban have since then been waging an insurgency which is in its
bloodiest phase this year and which targets officials working for the US-backed
government of President Hamid Karzai.
The insurgency has claimed more than 3,700 lives this
year, the bulk of them militants'.